The really cool stuff to see is what I got at Pet Club after I picked up the filter. Two pieces of African root wood, a really nice chunk of petrified wood and a piece of slate with a purplish hue to it (turned a bit brownish after soaking) .

The media configuration sounds fine to me. I never have run polyfill in mine. I always run the sponges on the side, then all 3 baskets full of ceramic rings. I have one basket full of the prefilter rings, then the top two full of standard biorings (name escapes me.. biomax?).

I will say that the substrat is very hard to clean compared to the rings. I have an eheim with the substrat and it takes considerably longer to clean than my two fluvals. But... its ultimately your choice. My line of thinking is that since only as much bacteria as the bio load will support will be there, there's not much need in spending tons of money on new biomedia when an $11 box of rings will give you all you need.

__________________
-Jonathan

"What, exactly, is the internet? Basically it is a global network exchanging digitized data in such a way that any computer, anywhere, that is equipped with a device called a 'modem', can make a noise like a duck choking on a kazoo." - Dave Barry

I'll post a picture of the canister under my 40 breeder real quick.. I know Mr Limpet isn't able to take pics ATM....

This is an eheim 2224, tank stand is 3' wide for reference (and this only shows half). It's roughly the same-ish size as your typical canisters, though it may be a tad shorter.

__________________
-Jonathan

"What, exactly, is the internet? Basically it is a global network exchanging digitized data in such a way that any computer, anywhere, that is equipped with a device called a 'modem', can make a noise like a duck choking on a kazoo." - Dave Barry

The media configuration sounds fine to me. I never have run polyfill in mine. I always run the sponges on the side, then all 3 baskets full of ceramic rings. I have one basket full of the prefilter rings, then the top two full of standard biorings (name escapes me.. biomax?).

I will say that the substrat is very hard to clean compared to the rings. I have an eheim with the substrat and it takes considerably longer to clean than my two fluvals. But... its ultimately your choice. My line of thinking is that since only as much bacteria as the bio load will support will be there, there's not much need in spending tons of money on new biomedia when an $11 box of rings will give you all you need.

I was considering that point and the amount of bacteria a 29g would sustain, plus the fact that the ESPro has a ton more surface area that the rings that came with the 305. I'm wondering if I may have too much since the filter is good for 75g, but figure the old adage that you can never have too much filtering was appropriate for a GSP tank .

I had the ESPro on hand so figured it was worth a go and I can see your point about cleaning being tougher (more material per Sq. inch), but after a couple times going thru it I'll figure out a system that will make it a bit easier.

The poly-fil is doing a tremendous job of filtering out fine particles in the filtration process just on the one tank I'm testing it with now. I'm planning on adding some to my goldies tank (2 HOB) and see what it does in there. I have to say that the media basket configuration of the 305 is fantastic and really easy to setup and I can't wait to see it in action.

ive never seen a canister in person are they like huge bulky thiings or no

They're not that big and once the hoses and all are setup, I see this as being a much easier way to deal with filtering my bigger tanks. I'll get pics up on my build tread that this unit is going into this week, as well as the decco I found .